Malaysia—Political System | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

A former British colony, Malaysia attained independence on 31 August 1957. The nation is a federation of thirteen states, governed by a Westminster-style parliamentary system. It includes the nine states of peninsular Malaya and the two Borneo territories of Sabah and Sarawak. The population is approximately twenty-five million, 52 percent of whom are ethnic Malays, 35 percent ethnic Chinese, and 10 percent Indians.

The head of state, the paramount ruler, is one of nine hereditary sultans who serve rotating five-year terms; he is constitutionally required to act with the advice of the prime minister. The paramount ruler is elected by the conference of rulers, which includes the nine hereditary sultans and four appointed governors and meets three to four times a year.

There is a bicameral parliament consisting of a nonelected upper house and a popularly elected lower house. The senate, or Dewan Negara, has sixty-nine seats, forty-three of which are appointed by the paramount ruler and twenty-six by the state legislatures. The house of representatives, or Dewan Rakyat, has 193 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms. Malaysia has universal suffrage for all adults over twenty-one years of age. The electoral system is weighted toward the rural Malay population.

The head of the government is the prime minister, who is chosen from among the members of the house of representatives. Following legislative elections, the leader of the party that wins a plurality of seats in the house of representatives becomes prime minister and appoints a cabinet. The prime minister is in charge of day-to-day governance. Beneath the prime minister is a cabinet made up of the heads of all government ministries and ministerial-level commissions and bodies. The cabinet meets once a week. If the prime minister loses the confidence of parliament, he or she must resign, along with the cabinet, and ask the paramount ruler to dissolve parliament; popular elections must be held within sixty days (ninety days in Sabah and Sarawak), and a new government is formed after legislative elections are held.

Malaysia has experienced relative political stability. There have been only four prime ministers since thecountry's founding, the first three all scions of the sultanates. Mahathir Mohamad (b. 1925), the current prime minister, chosen in 1981, is the longest-serving premier.

The National Alliance, the grouping of the three major ethnic-based parties—the United Malay National Organization (UMNO), the Malaysian Chinese Association, and the Malaysian Indian Congress—has dominated the government since the first federal elections in 1955. As ethnic minorities, many Chinese and Indians believe that their interests are best served by working with the dominant Malay party, UMNO. Since the founding of the country, all four prime ministers have belonged to the UMNO, including the incumbent, Mahathir Mohamad.

There are several opposition political parties, including Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), an Islamic party that is the main opposition party for ethnic Malays. Although an opposition party at the federal level, PAS controls two states in northeastern Malaysia, Kelantan and Teregganu, and has succeeded in winning ethnic Malay support away from the UMNO. The Democratic Action Party (DAP) is modeled on Singapore's dominant party, the People's Action Party. The DAP remains dominated by ethnic Chinese and has been unable to broaden its base of support; hence it wins only a portion of the Chinese vote. The National Justice Party (NJP), founded in 1998 by the wife of the former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, has helped to win ethnic Malay support away from the UMNO, especially from those Malays who want a more secular opposition party than PAS. In the house of representatives, the National Front coalition holds 148 of the seats; PAS has 27; DAP has 10; NJP has 5; and the Parti Bersatu Sabah has 3. Although the power of opposition parties has grown, they have been unable to forge a durable coalition to challenge the UMNO-dominated National Alliance.

Although the government has an electoral system that virtually guarantees that it gets returned to power each election because of the National Front's alliance with the three largest ethnic-based parties, it also uses a variety of authoritarian measures to keep the opposition weak. Several draconian laws were inherited from the colonial era, including the Internal Security Act (ISA), the Sedition Act, and the Official Secrets Act. Press freedoms are severely restricted as the government has the right to revoke or deny licenses to newspapers that aggravate national sensitivities or fail to serve national development goals. Journalists, editors, publishers, and printers are all punishable, and there is a lot of self-censorship. The government keeps tabs on all newspapers and maintains control over some media through direct ownership.

The ISA allows the minister of home affairs to detain anyone without trial if he or she is satisfied that such detention is necessary to prevent the person from acting in a way prejudicial to the security of Malaysia or to the maintenance of essential services. The supreme court has upheld the ISA, which however was slightly amended in 1988, so that the court can now review cases on procedural, though not factual, grounds.

The Sedition Act deters political discussion and debate on the country's most controversial issues. The Official Secrets Act is another broad British-based law that covers the publication of any information in the hands of the government, no matter how significant or widely known. This law has prevented journalists or opposition politicians from attacking the government on corruption charges.

Parliamentary rule was suspended once, following race riots in 1969 in which 169 people were killed after opposition gains at the polls. Martial law was imposed, and the country was ruled by decree by the National Operations Council for twenty-one months, until 1971. The government then implemented a radical affirmative-action program, the New Economic Program, designed to redistribute wealth and educational and career opportunities to the majority, but poorer, Malay community. The government believes that the dissolution of parliamentary rule and draconian laws and controls are necessary to maintain order in an ethnically divided society. But it also uses these controls to stifle opposition.

Malaysia has a federal system of government, with thirteen states and two federal territories. On 16 September 1963, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore were constitutionally added to Peninsular Malaya to create the Federation of Malaysia; Singapore was subsequently expelled from the Federation on 9 August 1965. On Peninsular Malaysia, all states are governed by hereditary rulers; the governors of Melaka and Penang, as well as of the two Borneo territories of Sabah and Sarawak, are appointed by the federal government. Two federal territories are directly administered by the federal government: Wilayah Persekutuan, the national capital region that includes Kuala Lumpur and the new administrative capital of Putrajaya, and the island of Labuan. The federal system is quite weak, and most decision-making power and fiscal authority reside with the central government. Although all thirteen states have their own legislatures, there is a strong bias toward the federal parliament, and the federal government is able to control most states through the allocation of resources and transfer payments. The concept of federal supremacy pervades the legislative process, and federal law always takes precedence in cases of inconsistency or conflict with state law. It is illegal for states to pass laws that undermine the authority of the federal government.

Malaysia has had two constitutions, the Independence Constitution of 1957 and a 1963 constitution that saw the incorporation of Sarawak, Sabah, and Singapore. The legal system is based on English common law. The supreme court has the right of judicial review over legislative acts at the request of the paramount ruler.

Although Malaysia inherited a British system of common law, the judicial branch has lost much of its independence from the government. Supreme Court justices are appointed by the paramount ruler on the advice of the prime minister. But in 1988, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took the unprecedented step of sacking the chief justice and two of his associates. Since then the court has become highly politicized and infrequently adjudicates against the interests of the government. In addition to the secular court system, Malaysia has a parallel Islamic—or shariʿa—court system that adjudicates matters of family law and religion.

Crouch, Harold. (1996) Government and Society in Malaysia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Gomez, Edmund Terrence, and K. S. Jomo. (1997) Malaysia's Political Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Tarling, Nicholas, ed. (1999) The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Watson Andaya, Barbara, and Leonard Y. Andaya. (2001) A History of Malaysia. 2d ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

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